CLOSED RAILWAY STATIONS

People have always had a fascination with disused railway lines and
stations. Following the opening of the first railway lines in the 1820’s,
stations have been closing; many in the last century because they were
resited to a more suitable location. This is particularly true in London
where many of the London termini were originally built some distance
short of their present site.

In the early 20th century, stations and lines began to close with
the introduction of new bus services, the increased popularity of
the car and the improvements in roads. Other lines and stations never
lived up to the expectations of their promoters.

Many rural stations were badly sited, well away from the towns and
villages that they were designed to serve and this too led to a rapid
decline in passenger numbers when more convenient forms of transport
became available.

The steady trickle of railway closures increased in the 1950’s
turning into a torrent in the 1960’s with the rationalization
of our railway network under the infamous Dr. Richard Beeching, the
chairman of British Railways from 1961 - 1965.

In March 1963 his report “The reshaping of British Railways”
was published. The “Beeching Axe” as it became known proposed
a massive closure programme. He recommended the closure of one third
of Britain’s 18,000 mile railway network, mainly rural branches
and cross country lines and 2,128 stations on lines that were to be
kept open. The following year his second report “The Development
of the Major Railway Trunk Routes” was even more scathing with
a proposal that all lines should be closed apart from the major intercity
routes and important profit making commuter lines around the big cities
leaving Britain with little more than a skeleton railway system and
a large parts of the country entirely devoid of railways. The report
was rejected by the government and Dr. Beeching resigned in 1965.

Although Beeching was gone, the closure programme that he started
under the Conservatives in the early 1960’s continued unabated
under Labour until it was brought to a halt in the early 1970’s;
but by that time the damage had been done. In 1955 the British railway
system had 20,000 miles of track and 6,000 stations. By 1975 this
had shrunk to 12,000 miles of track and 2,000 stations, roughly the
same size it is today.

Gradually the memory of these lost lines and stations began to fade
as the urban sites were redeveloped with only a road name to remind
people of their former existence. Most of the rural sites were returned
to nature and agriculture although many of the stations still survive
in some form or another, some transformed into attractive country
dwellings while others linger on in the undergrowth abandoned and
forgotten.

As closed stations are now fall within the realms of industrial archaeology
we have decided to produce a list of these stations which will be
affiliated to the Subterranea
Britannica web site.

This new web site is in its early stages but over the next few years
we hope to build up a comprehensive database of this part of Britain’s
railway heritage with a selection of photographs of closed stations
and brief details of each station and a map showing its location.
As most of these photographs were taken many years ago most sites
will have changed and many of the buildings shown will have been demolished.

All new stations added from November 2007 will include a timetable extract and tickets where available. Most of the tickets illustrated come from Michael Stewart, of 4 Meadow Close, Bridge, Canterbury, Kent, CT4 5AT. Tel: 01227 830344. E-mail Platformtickets@aol.com. Michael has been a collector of railway tickets since 1948 and would be pleased to be offered any similar interesting tickets. Other tickets supplied by Brian Halford who has been collecting tickets since 1961.

Railway Ramblers are a club that explores disused railway lines.
They organise walks throughout the country, for people of varying
ages and abilities, usually on disused railways. Click here
to go to their web site

Warning

Few of these sites are open to the public. Please do not pester site
owners to gain access. This causes irritation to many of them and makes
our task more difficult, instead, please join one of the specialist
societies that can organise visits properly.

If you own, live in or are concerned with a site listed here and wish
to contribute or modify your site listing please feel free to contact
us. Note: Site owners wishes and concerns are always welcome.Liverpool